Mesa’s Magana motivated

Anuare Magana was interested in running when he enrolled at Costa Mesa High, but he wasn’t really familiar with cross country as a sport.

Instead, Magana focused on other things. In Bob Serven’s physical education class, Magana worked at running a mile in six minutes and 30 seconds, so he could get the “Mile Club” T-shirt and shorts.

Serven saw something in Magana, so he spoke to Costa Mesa cross country and track Coach Steve Moreno. Magana joined the track team in the spring, and the cross country team next fall as a sophomore.

“That brought me into the next level of running,” Magana said. “I started running every day and did a lot of miles. Over that season, I managed to be able to run with the top guys. That was the year I could actually finish the runs with them, so it was a big transition year.”

The rest was history. Magana is now a senior and making it for the Mustangs on the cross country course. Every time you turn around, he is doing well in a big meet for Costa Mesa.

Magana has won the two-mile Fast Back Shootout at Mt. San Antonio College, the Laguna Hills Invitational, an Orange Coast League cluster meet and the Palos Verdes Invitational. Last weekend, he placed a strong 15th in the boys’ sweepstakes race at the Orange County Championships at Irvine Regional Park, the top finish of any Newport-Mesa runner.

Magana’s strong season continued Friday, when he medaled in the Division 4 boys’ sweepstakes race at the prestigious Mt. SAC Invitational. Battling the hot conditions, Magana placed sixth, in 15:46.

Running against some of the top Division 4 runners was good for Magana, who himself is ranked No. 8 in the state in Division 4 by PrepCalTrack.com. Magana is aiming big this year, as his goal is to make it to the CIF Cross Country State Championships for the first time.

The Mustangs boys’ top runner the past two years, graduate Brett Bermudez, fell just short. You must finish as a top five individual at CIF finals to make state. Bermudez, who now runs for Academy of Art University in San Francisco, was sixth as both a junior and a senior.

But now Magana seems to have a great shot at becoming the first runner in Moreno’s five-year tenure as coach to advance to state at Fresno’s Woodward Park on Nov. 29.

“Anuare was shadowing Brett most of last year,” Moreno said. “With another year of development, he’s definitely stepped up to the next level. The thing with Anuare, he has a lot of desire. Even as a sophomore, I could see the potential in him. He just needed the development part, which he’s worked himself into very well.”

Magana has indeed stepped things up, running as many as 60 miles per week this season. That’s 10 more than he ran as a junior. Most of those miles are accumulated in practice, but Magana also likes to run on a trail at the beach or on the Back Bay.

If it seems like hard work, that’s because it is, but Magana seems to enjoy it and thrive on the competition.

“I think I do know what it feels like to have the ‘runner’s high’ sort of thing,” he said. “Especially on the longer runs, when you’re out there for almost two hours, you feel like you can just go forever and you’re just moving, moving, moving. It doesn’t really feel like two hours. It feels a lot longer, a lot shorter sometimes. It’s a strange feeling. I just enjoy it, a lot.”

Magana doesn’t mind the increased responsibility. He knows he has to set a good example for his younger siblings, Emily, Mariano and Emma, even if none of them play sports.

Anuare is the favorite to win the Orange Coast League boys’ individual title on Wednesday, back at Irvine Regional Park. Last year, he placed sixth individually in league, but he smoked the competition at the cluster meet last month. The top challengers are Godinez junior Pedro Mier and Laguna Beach senior Cameron Zuziak.

Magana also wants to see the Mustang boys do well at league finals, which they did last year by placing second, though Moreno said Laguna Beach is favored to defend its league title for both boys’ and girls’ cross country.

Magana said he has never run at Woodward Park in Fresno for a meet. Making it to state this year would be big for both himself and the Mustangs’ program.

“It’s pretty cool getting some recognition, getting Costa Mesa known,” said Magana, who wants to run in college.

The postseason races are lined up, with CIF preliminaries at Mt. SAC on Nov. 15 and finals on Nov. 22. The fact that Magana has already run well there twice this year is a bonus. The three-mile course is challenging, with the aptly named “Poop Out Hill.”

“It’s one of my favorites, because it’s a really tough course,” he said. “It really brings out who are the tougher guys. Hills are always the big challenge.”

Run well there again, and it’s off to Fresno, where Magana would be competing for much more than a “Mile Club” T-shirt.

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Anuare Magana

Born: March 27, 1997

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 135 pounds

Sport: Cross country

Year: Senior

Coach: Steve Moreno

Favorite food: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Favorite movie: “No Limits”

Favorite athletic moment: The Costa Mesa team making CIF in Magana’s sophomore year.

Week in review: Magana finished 15th in the Orange County Championships boys’ sweepstakes race at Irvine Regional Park, in 15:16.